MISHAWAKA – The Bethel College seniors ended their last regular-season home game on a high note leading the No. 3 ranked Pilots to a 104-72 victory over Marian Tuesday night.

In a fast up-tempo game, the Pilots set the tone early opening up with a quick 17-9 advantage in the first minutes of play in the Crossroads League contest.

Bethel continued to slowly extend their lead throughout the rest of the half and at halftime headed into the locker room with a 43-27 advantage.

During the first-half the Pilots shot 51 percent from the field connecting on 16-of-31 attempts. The Pilots got help from the bench outscoring Marian’s bench 17-9.

Senior Caleb Oetjen  led the Pilots at the intermission with eight points and three rebounds. Four different Pilots added six points each and senior guard Clay Yeo tallied five.

The Pilots came out of halftime with a lack of focus as the Knights quickly rounded up a 10-2 run to cut the Pilots lead to just eight (43-35) with 17:45 left to play.

The Pilots quickly called a timeout to regain focus and responded with a quick 10-4 run to expand the lead back to 16. For the rest of the game the Pilots continued to lean on their solid defensive efforts holding Marian to shooting just 23 percent from behind the arc. The Pilots continued to slowly extend their lead throughout the rest of the night to take control of the game and come away with their sixteenth Crossroads League victory in a row.

The Pilots finished the night shooting 58 percent from the field connecting on 39-of-67 attempts including 12-of-26 from behind the three-point line (46 percent).

Oetjen finished the night with 18 points going 7-of-9 from the field including a solid 4-of-5 from behind the arc. Sophomore Trey’von Covington added 17 points and three steals for the Pilots. Yeo added 13 points on the night while senior Jordyn Coon tallied 10 points, eight rebounds, and five assists on the night.

Bethel finished the night outrebounding the Knights 48-29 and relied heavily on the bench who finished the night with 51 points compared to Marian’s 21. The Pilots also took advantage of their size inside scoring 50 points in the paint while holding MU to just 34.

Bethel improves to 26-3 in the regular season and 16-1 in the Crossroads League. The Pilots will finish the regular season on the road as they travel to the University of Saint Francis to take on the Cougars on Saturday afternoon.